jeudi 3 novembre 2011

The Postal Troll

Reginald Bray was the “headache” of the British postal system. It may seem that he uses a mailbox as a garbage can. However, bulbs which the man lowers into the slot have postage stamps on them. By law, these vegetables must be delivered to the postal address.

It all began in 1898. Mr. Bray saw the Royal Mail Tracker User guide that said it would deliver anything anywhere, from bees to elephants. Bray understood this slogan literally, and he spent the next 40 years of his life experimenting with the limits of the British postal system. His first postcard had to be delivered to “any house in London”.

He could mail a photograph of a rock with a note, “To a resident nearest to this rock”.

He could encrypt address as a riddle.

He could mail knitted envelopes.

He could use postcards with two addresses asking to forever forward them from one address to the other.Of course, not every letter found its recipient, but the postal system tried hard. Bored of postcards, Reginald Bray switched to parcels. He used mailbox to mail a pot, a turnip with the address carved on it, a rabbit’s skull, a pipe, a penny, a bicycle and other things.

Mr. Bray pasted a mark on each item delivered. He once mailed a dog. He even had himself delivered as a letter.

Bray is well-known as “The Autograph King”. He sent letters to ordinary people and celebrities asking them for an autograph. His collection amassed over 15,000 autographs by 1939. He was trying to get Hitler’s authograph. He kept sending letters to him when he received a respond from the German office saying, “The Fuhrer is busy. Refrain from any further mails to this address”. Those were 1930s. Hitler was busy.